Pulse: Anti-Semitic incidents on rise

     The Anti-Defamation League reports 1,986 incidents in 2017, nearly 60 percent higher than in 2016. The increase represented the largest single-year increase on record and the second-highest number reported since the organization began tracking incidents in the 1970s.
      The year's events included physical assaults, vandalism and attacks on Jewish institutions, according to a news release for the organization. There were:

• 1,015 incidents of harassment, including 163 bomb threats against Jewish institutions, up 41 percent from 2016.
• 952 incidents of vandalism, up 86 percent from 2016.
• 19 physical assaults, down 47 percent from 2016.

    The league also reported a dramatic increase in the number of incidents at schools -- from kindergarten through college. “There were 457 anti-Semitic incidents reported in non-Jewish schools, up from 235 in 2016 and 114 in 2015. Jewish institutions and schools also saw incidents double, jumping from 170 in 2016 to 342 last year,” a news release from the organization reported. There were 204 incidents on college campuses in 2017, compared to 108 in 2016.
    Disturbingly 221 instances of vandalism were reported in K-12 schools, and 186 of those included “swastikas...either drawn or scratched into school facilities or drawn on Jewish students’ notebooks,” the report said. In a few cases, white power expressions were included.
    Part of the reason for the increase is what the report describes as “enhanced reporting and heightened sensitivity to bullying.” But the report also noted that it is likely that not all schoolyard bullying is reported.

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